SpongeBob SquarePants (series)
SpongeBob SquarePants is Nickelodeon's videogame franchise made by THQ entirely based on the 1999 Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants created by a marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. The series chronicles the adventures and endeavors of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The first release was "Legend of the Lost Spatula" for the Game Boy Color in 2001. The latest release is "SpongeBob HeroPants" for the 3DS, Xbox 360 and Playstation Vita from Activsion in 2015. The remake for the SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom video game "SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated" will be released in 2020 by THQ Nordic. Premise Setting The series primarily takes place in the benthic underwater city of Bikini Bottom, which is located in the Pacific Ocean beneath the real-life coral reef known as Bikini Atoll. In 2015, Tom Kenny confirmed that the fictitious city was named after Bikini Atoll, but denied an Internet fan theory that connected the series' characters to actual nuclear testing that occurred in the atoll. The citizens are mainly multicolored fish who live in buildings made from ship funnels and use "boatmobiles," amalgamations of cars and boats, as a mode of transportation. Recurring locations within Bikini Bottom include the neighboring houses of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward; two competing restaurants, the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket; Mrs. Puff's Boating School, which includes a driving course and a sunken lighthouse building; the Treedome, an oxygenated glass enclosure where Sandy lives; Shady Shoals Rest Home; a seagrass meadow called Jellyfish Fields; and Goo Lagoon, a subaqueous brine pool that is a popular beach hangout. When the SpongeBob crew began production on the series' pilot episode, they were tasked with designing the stock locations where "the show would return to again and again, and in which most of the action would take place, such as the Krusty Krab and SpongeBob's pineapple house". The idea for the series was "to keep everything nautical", so the crew used a great amount of rope, wooden planks, ships' wheels, netting, anchors, boilerplates, and rivets in creating the show's setting. Transitions between scenes are marked by bubbles filling up the screen, accompanied by the sound of water rushing. The series features "sky flowers" as a main setting material. They first appeared in the pilot and have since become a common feature throughout the series. When series background designer Kenny Pittenger was asked what they were, he answered, "They function as clouds in a way, but since the show takes place underwater, they aren't really clouds. Because of the tiki influence on the show, the background painters use a lot of pattern." Pittenger said that the sky flowers were meant to "evoke the look of a flower-print Hawaiian shirt". Characters The series revolves around the title character and an ensemble cast of his aquatic friends. Spongebob Squarepants is an energetic and optimistic sea sponge who physically resembles a rectangular kitchen sponge. He lives in a submerged pineapple with his pet snail Gary, who meows like a cat. SpongeBob has a childlike enthusiasm for life, which carries over to his job as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant called the Krusty Krab. His greatest goal in life is to receive a license to drive a boatmobile. His favorite pastimes include "jellyfishing," which involves catching jellyfish with a net in a manner similar to butterfly catching, and blowing soap bubbles into elaborate shapes. Living two houses down from SpongeBob is his best friend Patrick Star, a dim-witted yet friendly pink starfish who resides under a rock. Despite his mental setbacks, Patrick still sees himself as intelligent. Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob's next-door neighbor and co-worker at the Krusty Krab, is an arrogant and ill-tempered octopus who lives in an Easter Island moai. He enjoys playing the clarinet and painting self-portraits, but hates his job as a cashier and dislikes living between SpongeBob and Patrick, due to their childish nature. The owner of the Krusty Krab is a miserly red crab named Mr. Krabs who talks like a sailor and runs his restaurant as if it were a pirate ship. Mr. Krabs is a single parent with one teenage daughter, a sperm whale named Pearl, to whom he wants to pass down his riches. Pearl does not want to continue the family business and would rather spend her time listening to pop music or working at the local shopping mall. Another friend of SpongeBob is Sandy Cheeks, a thrill-seeking and athletic squirrel from Texas, who wears an air-filled diving suit to breathe underwater. She lives in an oak tree entrapped in a clear glass dome locked by an airtight, hand-turned seal and is an expert in karate, as well as a scientist. Located across the street from the Krusty Krab is an unsuccessful rival restaurant called the Chum Bucket. It is run by a small green copepod named Plankton and his waterproof supercomputer, Karen. Plankton constantly tries to steal the secret recipe for Mr. Krabs's popular Krabby Patty burgers, hoping to gain the upper hand and put the Krusty Krab out of business. Karen supplies him with evil schemes to take the formula, but their efforts are never successful and their restaurant rarely gets any customers. When SpongeBob is not working at the Krusty Krab, he is often taking boat-driving lessons from Mrs. Puff, a paranoid but very patient pufferfish. SpongeBob is Mrs. Puff's most diligent student and knows every answer to the oral exams he takes, but he panics and crashes whenever he tries to drive a real boat. When Mrs. Puff endures one of SpongeBob's crashes or is otherwise frightened, she puffs up into a ball. Special episodes of the show are hosted by a live action pirate named Patchy and his pet parrot Potty, whose segments are presented in a dual narrative with the animated stories.24 Patchy is portrayed as the president of a fictional SpongeBob fan club, and his greatest aspiration is to meet SpongeBob himself. Potty likes to make fun of Patchy's enthusiasm and causes trouble for him while he tries to host the show. An unseen figure called the French Narrator often introduces episodes and narrates the intertitles as if the series was a nature documentary about the ocean. His role and distinctive manner of speaking are references to the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. Recurring guest characters appear throughout the series, such as the retired superheroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, who are idolized by SpongeBob and Patrick; a pirate specter known as the Flying Dutchman; the muscular lifeguard of Goo Lagoon, Larry the Lobster; and the merman god of the sea, King Neptune. History Numerous video games based on the series have been produced. Some of the early games include Legend of the Lost Spatula (2001) and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (2003). The 2003 video game was added to the Greatest Hits by Sony. It also served as the engine basis for a video game based on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Heavy Iron Studios, the game's developers, tweaked the graphics to give the game a sharper and more imaginative look than that of Battle for Bikini Bottom. They also increased the polygon count, added several racing levels, and incorporated many of the creatures seen in the film. In 2013, Nickelodeon published and distributed SpongeBob Moves In!, a freemium city-building game app developed by Kung Fu Factory for iOS and Android. Gameplay The gameplay of the Spongebob series mostly consists of obstacles, puzzles and the most wacky Hawaiian storylines actually taken from it's tv show counterpart. Like most action/adventure video games, the player can jump, attack, solve puzzles seen in SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom and sometimes race it out seen on the SpongeBob Boating Bash or make some comical party game ideas seen on SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants!. See also * SpongeBob SquarePants (TV series) References Category:Nickelodeon Category:SpongeBob SquarePants Category:THQ Nordic franchises Category:THQ former franchises